


Tick Tock

by foreverHenry919



Category: Forever (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst and Romance, F/M, Gen, Immortality, Inanimate Objects, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverHenry919/pseuds/foreverHenry919
Summary: This tale focuses on Henry’s pocket watch. In the show, it looks almost identical to an antique Lonville Full Hunter pocket watch which --- according to what I found on the Internet --- was not manufactured until the 20th century. But let’s pretend that the watch’s manufacture date was much earlier during the time when Henry’s great-grandfather came into possession of it in the early 1700’s.Just something that has been banging around in the back of my head for a while. Not following canon even though I believe that if the series had been allowed to continue, more information would have been provided on his watch and how it really works with his immortality. Maybe. Anyway, just forget what you think you already know and … indulge me this turn of fancy.
Relationships: Abe Morgan & Henry Morgan, Henry Morgan/Original Character(s), Jo Martinez & Henry Morgan
Comments: 81
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own "Forever" TV show 2014-2015 or any of its characters. I forgive you, ABC, for canceling this lovely show without giving it a chance. We understand how hard it is for you guys to function on half a brain and no heart.

VVVVVVVV 

The subway train rumbled slowly to a stop. Dr. Henry Morgan checked the time on his gold pocket watch and snapped it shut when he heard a voice above him. 

“That’s a beautiful timepiece,” the voice stated. 

Henry, seated, looked up to see who the voice belonged to and was met with the sight of a balding man in his early 60’s. His rumpled brown suit and scraggly white hair gave him the appearance of an overworked college professor and his blue eyes roamed intriguingly over the ancient watch. 

“Thank you,” Henry replied. He repocketed it then stood up and joined the offboarding crowd. 

“Would you be interested in selling it?” the man asked as he shuffled out behind him. 

“Ah, no, I wouldn’t,” Henry politely replied over his shoulder. 

“I’d give you a good price,” the man promised, unwilling to be put off. 

They were now out of the subway and on the street. Henry turned to face him. “It simply isn’t for sale,” he told him more forcefully but with a polite smile. He turned to head in the direction of the antique shop but the man shoved a business card at him. 

“If you should change your mind,” he said, grinning. 

Rather than protest again, Henry accepted the card. Seemingly satisfied, the man turned and toddled away in the opposite direction. Henry held the card up and read the name on it. 

“Alfred Leuenberger. Time Recovery, Inc.” Henry frowned and looked up in the direction the man had left but the crowd had swallowed him up. 

vvvv 

“So, some weirdo wants to buy your watch,” Abe said as he studied the card then handed it back to his father. “If he makes a nuisance of himself, I’ll be glad to straighten him out for you.” 

Henry chuckled and took the card. “Thank you for the offer, Abraham, but I believe that I can handle the situation myself. Besides, our meeting this morning was only by chance. I seriously doubt our paths will cross again anytime soon.” 

“I’ll bet this isn’t the first time that someone’s been so intrigued with your watch that they wanted to buy it from you,” Abe ventured. 

“Actually,” his father began, “this is the first time.” He looked up to meet Abe’s gaze. “Many have openly admired its beautiful craftsmanship but he is the first to offer to purchase it.” 

“Wow,” Abe replied, surprised. “Say, how did it get into the Morgan family anyway?” He cut into his prime rib and forked a piece into his mouth. 

“You know the story well, Abraham,” he replied as he buttered a piece of French bread and bit into it. 

“Yeah, I know Grandpa Robert gave it to you on his deathbed,” Abe recounted. “He got it from his dad who got it from his dad.” Henry nodded and chewed while Abe spoke. “But how did it first get into the family?” 

“Oh, that,” Henry said with a chuckle as he stabbed his fork into some string beans. “Family lore has it that your Great-great-grandfather, Myles Morgan, won it in a game of cards. However, one of the other players couldn’t meet the bet. So, he paid with his watch.” 

“Wow,” Abe said under his breath. “And what year was that, exactly?” 

“Umm, I believe it was … 1738.” 

“And it’s still ticking,” Abe marveled, nodding his head slightly. “Poor guy who had to part with that beauty had probably hoped to win it back one day,” he speculated. 

“Yes, you’re probably right,” Henry replied, pensive. He then released a loud sigh of lament. “Except fate intervened and he died of smallpox less than six months later. Although inoculation was introduced in Central Europe by 1721, the poor fellow apparently missed out on that, too.” 

vvvv 

The Ridge Hotel on East Houston and Eldridge … 

Alfred Leuenberger sat at the desk in his fourth-floor hotel room as he flipped through the pages of a large tome, his reading glasses perched on the edge of his nose. He stopped flipping and studied a page with the image of a pocket watch identical to Henry’s. Underneath the image was a short paragraph in old-style handscript stating the watch’s origins along with its original owner and subsequent owners. 

“Yes, yes,” Alfred eagerly whispered as he read. “Just as I thought.” 

His right index finger slid down a list of handwritten names, dates, and locations, and came to rest on a certain line of information, and then he tapped it, greatly satisfied. “I knew it! I knew it!” he happily declared with a grin. “I must persuade the present owner to relinquish this watch; this Henry Morgan. It’s for his own good,” he added, bobbing his head up and down. 

vvvv 

The next morning outside Abe’s Antiques … 

Henry left the shop and headed down the street to the subway. As he approached the subway entrance, he heard a now-familiar voice behind him. 

“Dr. Morgan. Dr. Morgan!” 

Henry closed his eyes and released a weary sigh as he turned around to face Alfred. “Mr. Leuenberger,” he said. In his annoyance, he failed to realize that he had never divulged his name to the man. “My watch is still not for sale.” 

“M-my mistake,” Alfred hurriedly replied. He squared his shoulders and smiled broadly. “Of course, it’s not for sale. I would, however, like for you to give it to me.” 

The Immortal ME squinted under a furrowed brow. “Is this a holdup?” he asked, incredulous. 

“Oh, no, no, no, Doctor, you misunderstand my intentions!” the strange, rumpled man excitedly replied. “You see, the watch that you carry --- and it is a very beautiful one, I might add ---” 

“Thank you,” Henry politely replied, still skeptical, brow still furrowed. 

“It was a gift to you,” Alfred continued. “So, it cannot be sold. That is, since it was gifted to you, you are the owner. If you were to sell it to someone else, you would still remain the owner.” 

The furrows on Henry’s brow released along with a sigh of impatience. “Mr. Leuenberger ---” 

“Alfred,” he interrupted. “Call me Alfred. You and I should be on a first-name basis since I am the friend that you have been looking for, for a long time.” He grinned and bobbed his head up and down. 

Henry huffed out a sigh of annoyance, his patience run out. “Alfred. Right now, I am late for work. So, if you don’t mind …" He stepped away from Alfred to head down the subway entrance stairs but stopped in his tracks at what he heard next. 

“If you relinquish ownership of your watch,” Alfred told him in a lowered voice, “you also relinquish your immortality.” 

Henry turned slowly back around to face this strange man; his large eyes opened even wider in astonishment. Had he heard correctly? 

“Think of it, Doctor. You could finally live a normal life.” 

VVVVVVVV 

**Notes:**

The [Leuenberger] name is a toponymic one and likely referred to those who came from a region called Lowenberg in Germany. The name may also have been a reference to people from any of the several small places called Leuenberg in Germany and Switzerland. 

[ https://www.momjunction.com/articles/swiss-surnames-last-family-names-meanings ](https://www.momjunction.com/articles/swiss-surnames-last-family-names-meanings_00548817/#:~:text=100%20Common%20Swiss%20Last%20Names%20Or%20Surnames%20With,Brunner.%20...%204%20Baumann.%20...%20More%20items...%20)

Information on 18th century diseases in Britain found at [ https://diseasesandmedicineof18thcentury.weebly.com/diseases-and-treatments.html ](https://diseasesandmedicineof18thcentury.weebly.com/diseases-and-treatments.html)

The Ridge Hotel is located on the corner of E Houston and Eldrige in NYC <https://ridgehotelnyc.com/>


	2. Tick Tock Ch 2 Alfred Corners Henry

_“If you relinquish ownership of your watch,” Alfred told Henry in a lowered voice, “you also relinquish your immortality. Think of it, Doctor. You could finally live a normal life.”_

VVVVVVVV 

“I see that I finally have your undivided attention,” he said to an astonished but still skeptical Henry. 

“How did you know about my …?” Henry breathlessly began before Alfred cut him off. 

“It’s my job to know these things, Doctor,” the strange man informed him. He slung his arm around Henry’s shoulders. “You see, I spend a great deal of time hunting down and gathering these various timepieces from unfortunates such as yourself ---” 

“Unfortunates?” Henry asked, bristling. Although he had categorized his condition as being a curse, he had never referred to himself as being unfortunate. Maybe he was but … more like victimized but ... 

“Well … that’s what I call you and others like you,” Alfred replied unapologetically. “In each case, you and some of the other owners of these timepieces all met an untimely end but almost immediately found themselves alive again,” he explained with a chuckle. “This unique ability to bystep permanent death was involuntarily bestowed upon them --- and you --- at that point.” 

“Yes,” Henry replied, suddenly aware that his surroundings had changed from just outside the antique shop. He now found himself in a room unfamiliar to him. “Where are we?” he asked, alarmed. “And how did we get here?” 

Alfred removed his arm from around Henry’s shoulders and walked over to the desk and grabbed the large tome lying on top of it. “We’re in my hotel room,” he replied matter-of-factly to his first question. “And how we got here is irrelevant but suffice to say that I have employed a little-known element of time to get us here.” 

He walked back over to Henry and showed him the open page with the image of a gold pocket watch virtually identical to the one he owned. 

“I don’t understand the significance of this,” Henry said, wishing to dismiss the image as merely being coincidental. “It certainly looks like mine and possibly thousands of others throughout the world.” 

“True, true,” Alfred conceded. “Read the descriptive information,” he advised him. 

He waited while Henry read when and where the watch was made and by whom. He took great satisfaction in seeing the Immortal’s curious eyes grow larger as he read the names and locations of the original owner and each subsequent owner. Henry handed the book back to him and glared at him. 

“How did you obtain this information about my family and my watch?” he asked. “No one knows about this --- or my condition.” 

Alfred took the book from him, closed it, and placed it back on the desk. He turned around to face him again, one hand on his hip. “There’s no need for you to hide the facts from me, Doctor. Your son, Abraham, guards your secret. As does that other, dark-minded Immortal. The one who calls himself Adam.” He dropped his hand from his hip and walked up to Henry again. 

“You see, Doctor,” he began, “I know that you have been looking for a way out of what you call a cursed existence. And I am here to show you that way out. When my ancestor, Jeton Leuenberger, apprenticed under Jean Breuget, one of the most innovative French watchmakers of the 16th century, neither of them knew that they would be the creators of some of the most remarkable and magnificent timepieces the world has ever known. Still … their competitors, though few, also crafted superior products.” 

“Alright, they were excellent watchmakers with stiff competition,” Henry stated, frustrated and confused. “What exactly are you trying to tell me?” 

“Jeton was a loyal apprentice and wanted his master to be the best crafter of timepieces,” Alfred explained. “He was also deeply involved with what you might call witchcraft. The Egyptian spells in the ancient Book of Thoth thoroughly captured his imagination. Are you familiar with this book?” 

“Yes,” Henry answered. “It was a book of ancient magic used by the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, Thoth; and there were two spells in it. One that would allow a person to understand animals and the other to understand the mind of the gods. Fantastical gibberish,” Henry scoffed. 

Alfred smiled and nodded while Henry spoke. “What isn’t known is that there was … is … a third spell. One that would allow a person to remain in the land of the living much longer than is humanly possible; and also to defy the usual aging process associated with a normal existence. That is the spell that captured Jeton’s imagination the most,” he said, his face alit with a broad smile while his blue eyes sparkled. 

Henry leaned away from him and took a step back. “Look. I don’t know how you got me here,” he said as he gestured with both hands at his surroundings. “Some sort of hypnotic suggestion, I suppose. But everything you’ve told me can only be summed up in one word: balderdash!” 

“Doctor ---” 

“No!” Henry loudly shot back at him as he raised an arm, turned on his heel, and headed toward the door. However, just when he got to the door and reached out for the knob, he found himself reaching out toward the door on the outside of the 11th Precinct. He gasped and dropped his hand, then frowned in confusion as he spun around surveying his surroundings and he wondered how he had arrived there so quickly. 

“Excuse me, Doc,” he heard someone say behind him. He stepped aside to his right and allowed a young woman he recognized as Janie, a new assistant to Dr. Washington, to enter the precinct. She smiled at him as she disappeared through the door and he used her momentum to follow her inside. 

A few minutes later … 

A very distracted Henry Morgan practically sleep-walked into the morgue. His young assistant, Lucas Wahl, was concerned as he watched him. He grew more concerned when Henry appeared not to acknowledge the invariably rude Dr. Washington and his latest rude remarks. 

“Well, it looks like _some_ of us are allowed to keep banker’s hours,” Washington snarked as his eyes followed his distracted colleague. When met with no response, Washington scoffed and returned his attention to the autopsy he was performing on a car accident victim. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to contradict my opinion of this victim’s COD, too?” he asked mockingly in a louder voice. When met again with no response, he strained his neck to look over his shoulder at Henry, just in time to see him shut his office door and close the blinds. The surly ME scoffed again and resumed the autopsy. 

Lucas bit his tongue and glared at the older ME as he fought the urge to lash back at him but he was more concerned with what might be troubling his boss. Trouble in Jenry-land, he briefly wondered. But no, no, no. He totally, totally shipped them and looked forward to the day when his straight-laced boss broke down and openly acknowledged that he had the hots for a certain lovely Latina homicide detective. 

Great, great, he told himself at the sight of the lovely detective herself as her curvaceous hips --- through no conscious effort of her own --- swung her into the morgue. If anyone could get the Big Guy out of his funk, Det. Jo Martinez could. He bit back his laughter when Washington tried his snark on her but she threw it right back at him. 

Jo paused to look at the victim and Washington said, “This is not your case, Detective; so, there is no need for you to check and make sure that I do my job correctly.” 

“Too bad,” she volleyed back at him. “Someone certainly needs to.” 

She quickly walked away and winked at an amused Lucas, well aware of the glare of annoyance the surly ME was surely leveling at her back. 

“Hey, Lucas,” she greeted him and then trained her eyes on Henry’s shuttered office. “Is … he …?” she asked as she pointed uncertainly at it. 

“Yeah,” Lucas replied. “But something’s up with the Big Guy. He came in, his mind a million miles away. Maybe you can … reel him back in.” 

She bit her lower lip, nodded, then walked over but was met with a locked door. Concern deepening, she knocked as she leaned close and waited for a response. Movement from within let her know that he had left his chair and was walking closer to the door. 

“Yes, who is it?” Henry’s voice was quiet but strained and she became even more concerned. 

“Det. Martinez,” she replied. “We got a possible break in the Zamboni case,” she lied, hoping he would take the bait and open the door. A sigh of relief left her when the door finally opened. He stepped back to let her in and turned and walked toward the coat rack. 

“Just let me get my coat and scarf,” he told her but clearly his tone of voice and demeanor lacked the usual eagerness he often had at the prospect of possibly cornering a suspect. 

Jo closed the door and locked it again. She then came close to him and put her hand over his to still it as he reached for his jacket and pointed out to him that he still had it on. 

His gaze dropped to her gentle hand atop his and he let out a sigh. “Let me guess, Detective,” he said with a faint smile. “There is no lead to run down, is there?” 

Her hand fell away from his and she shrugged. “I had to get in here some way,” she replied with her own faint smile, “in order to find out what’s up with you. Lucas is pretty concerned.” 

A sigh left him again and he pressed his lips together. “I suppose I did give him cause for concern when I floated in here on a cloud of my own,” he said with regret. “It’s just that since this morning, a confounding situation has consumed my thoughts.” 

“Is it your stalker?” she asked, alarmed. “Has Adam woken out of his coma?” 

“No,” he quickly replied, looking her in the eyes. He cleared his throat and looked away from her. “Ah, not exactly,” he said more calmly. “It has nothing to do with him,” he added. “But it does have something to do with … my condition.” 

She inhaled deeply and released it, then nodded, tightlipped. It had only been a few weeks since he’d shared his secret of immortality with her. To speak openly or even think about any aspect of it was still strange to her. But she was happy that he’d finally taken her into his confidence. 

“Come on,” she told him as she turned around and grabbed his scarf off of the coat rack. She then placed it around his neck but held onto the ends of it. He smiled and placed a hand over each of hers. 

“Where are you taking me?” he asked, his head tilted to the side. 

“Somewhere we can discuss this ‘confounding situation’ you’ve suddenly been faced with in private,” she replied. 

“Ah. My home,” he concluded. 

“Nope,” she replied. “Mine.” 

vvvv 

During the short drive from the 11th Precinct to Jo’s home in Washington Heights, she silently entertained many questions about what might be troubling her long-lived friend. But she chose to allow him to keep his thoughts to himself for now. While she drove, Henry recalled what Alfred had told him yesterday outside the subway entrance and that morning while he had been whisked into his hotel room. 

The couple sat in subdued silence on the sofa in the living room of Jo’s Washington Heights home. Henry had just finished sharing with her what the strange little man, Alfred Leuenberger, had told him. 

“Well, that’s confounding, alright,” she finally remarked. “It also sounds too good to be true,” she added. “According to this Alfred guy, your immortality is attached to your pocket watch; and, since it came to you as a gift, you can pass your immortality to someone else if you gift your watch to them.” 

He nodded wide-eyed. 

“Not sell it,” she clarified. 

He shook his head, his lips pursed. 

“Do you … believe him?” she asked uncertainly. What was believable or unbelievable anymore? Ever since her acceptance of the reality of Immortals, she wondered from time to time what else might be out there to topple another of her disbeliefs. 

“I’m not sure,” Henry replied. “But the very idea intrigues me no end,” he admitted. “And, I must admit, frightens me, as well.” 

VVVVVVVV 

Notes: 

I Googled Swiss names for males to come up with Alfred's name. <https://www.momjunction.com/baby-names/swiss/boy/page/2/>

Of course, I fudged a great deal on facts regarding Abraham Louis-Beuguet and one of his ancestors, Jean Beuguet. Here’s the link to Abraham’s wiki: [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham-Louis_Breguet ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham-Louis_Breguet) and here’s another link to information about him: [ https://lignup.com/collectibles/131-breguet-watchmaker.html ](https://lignup.com/collectibles/131-breguet-watchmaker.html)

The Book of Thoth was a book of ancient magic used by the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, Thoth. The [ Book of Thoth ](http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythbookthoth.htm) was said to contain two spells—one to understand animals and one to understand the mind of the gods. In an ancient Egyptian story, a prince of Egypt found the book after avoiding a series of traps. As punishment for finding the book, the prince’s family was killed, and the prince committed suicide. 

Years later, a new prince found the book but was warned by the old prince’s ghost not to take it. He didn’t listen and was promptly convinced by a beautiful woman to humiliate himself and kill his children. However, he discovered that the whole thing was an illusion created by the old prince’s ghost as a warning. He placed the book back into the old prince’s tomb and left. [ https://listverse.com/2013/08/01/ten-amazing-and-curious-mythological-objects/ ](https://listverse.com/2013/08/01/ten-amazing-and-curious-mythological-objects/)


	3. Tick Tock Ch 3

_“According to this Alfred guy,” Jo began, “your immortality is attached to your pocket watch that was gifted to you. So, your immortality can also pass to someone else if you gift your watch to them.”_

VVVVVVVV 

“The thought of it frightens me --- in, in a delightful way --- because after all my long years of searching,” Henry started, “it’s hard to explain but I feel that I may finally be at the precipice of a new beginning. If what he says is true …” He paused to release a nervous chuckle. “I will finally be free of my curse.” 

Jo studied him as his handsome features morphed between excitement and uncertainty. His large, brown eyes roamed over the room, settling on nothing, as she could see him try to come to grips with this extraordinary new information. It was exciting, she grudgingly admitted. If he relinquished ownership of his watch to someone else, she wondered, how would that person handle their sudden immortality? Would they handle it as well as he had all this time or would they embark on a crime spree as Adam had? Not everyone could be trusted to deal sanely and responsibly with having even a small degree of invincibility. 

Maybe it was time to be selfish regarding this, she thought. She wouldn’t have to face visibly aging past him as Abigail had. They could have a normal relationship, life together. Children. A home. Love each other and grow old together … and the hell with how the newest Immortal might behave. Right? Oh! Decisions like this could be reached so much easier, so much quicker if it weren’t for them both having a conscience! 

“What do you think?” he asked her. He looked deeply into her eyes but the excitement in his voice failed to hide the uncertainty he felt. 

“It isn’t my decision to make, Henry. What do _you_ think?” she emphasized to him. 

“But think about it, Jo. We could be together and not worry about any supernatural consequences,” he said, echoing her own thoughts. 

“Then, you believe him? You’re really considering doing this?” she probed. “You said you were angry when you left his hotel room,” she reminded him. 

“Yes, I was,” he replied. “At first, because I simply didn’t think that he could be believed. Later, I realized that it was possibly because someone else had provided a solution instead of me in spite of all my diligent research,” he sheepishly admitted. “And the more that I think about it, I, I ---” 

She placed her hand on his upper arm in an effort to calm him down even though she could totally relate to how excited he must be at the prospect of eventually having a dream realized. If her own childhood dreams of having all of her wishes granted by her fairy godmother or a genie were suddenly possible, she knew that she would be drunk with giddiness. 

“Why don’t I go check him out before you do anything?” she offered. “Make sure he’s not just some slick con artist only after your watch.” She was sure it was worth tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her eyes dropped down to the watch’s chain that led from his vest’s buttonhole and disappeared into his trouser pocket. 

“That … that makes sense,” he replied. He closed his eyes and took in a few quick breaths, then opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Thank you, Jo. I don’t know what I’d do without the level-headed advice you give me.” 

“Hmmm. Advice,” she said then lowered her eyes and pulled in her lower lip. 

“Yes, among other things,” he said, realizing that he needed to say more, show her how much he appreciated her. He leaned closer, gently lifted her chin up with his finger, and their lips met in a soft, lingering kiss. 

The kiss deepened and they pulled each other closer. Jo’s fingers found the back of his head and played in his soft, dark curls. It elicited a moan from him and he hugged her even closer. While one of his arms was wrapped around her tiny waist, his free hand held the back of her head in place as the kiss intensified. 

vvvv 

Unbeknownst to Lucas back in the morgue, he needn’t have worried about the good ship Jenry. All systems were go. At least he could comfort himself with the fact that they had left together and he hoped that they were at least finding time to steal a smooch or two while trying to nail perps. Henry’s desk phone rang five times before the call switched over to voicemail. After a few moments, the phone rang again three more times then stopped. Lucas braced himself and stared at the phone on his workstation in anticipation. He chuckled and answered it. 

“OCME, Lucas Wahl … Oh, Abe, yeah … No, he left with Det. Martinez a little while ago to follow up on … Sure, sure, no prob--- …” He held the receiver away from his head and frowned at it. “Bye,” he said even though Abe had abruptly hung up with a rushed goodbye. He hung up the phone and shook his head. Henry’s roommate sounded upset and maybe just as worried about him as he was. If anybody could get the Big Guy unwound, he assured himself again, Det. Jo Martinez could. 

vvvv 

Still in his hotel room, Alfred studied the large tome on the desk and rested his hand atop it. There was no need to reopen it to the page with a picture of the Doctor’s watch and its history. He knew it well. It was imprinted in his memory. He sighed and sat down at the desk. Convincing this doctor, this Henry Morgan, this dedicated and regimented 18th Century man to give his watch away was going to be harder than he’d thought. But he had to find a way to convince him to do just that. For what he hadn’t told Henry was that his own fate, his very existence depended upon the successful completion of his task. 

“I hadn’t wished to do this, Doctor,” he said to himself, “but you give me no choice. Your insistence on holding onto your watch forces me to imperil someone close to you. Perhaps only then will you be willing to part with it. Someone … no, not your son. He's just as stubborn as you are and would most likely refuse the gift of immortality because of his advanced age. No, someone like … A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts and he walked over and opened it. A forced smile worked its way across his face when he saw who his visitor was. 

“Det. Jo Martinez, NYPD,” Jo said, flashing her badge. “I’m here to speak with an Alfred Leuenberger.” 

“Uh, that would be me, Detective,” he replied. “Won’t you come in?” He thoroughly hated what he planned to do, but he could see no other way. In the end, he was sure the Doctor would see things his way and … forgive him for what he was about to do. 


	4. Tick Tock Ch 4 Lucas Knows Thoth

_“I hadn’t wished to do this, Doctor,” Alfred said to himself, “but your insistence on holding onto your watch forces me to imperil someone close to you. Perhaps only then will you be willing to part with it.”_

VVVVVVVV 

Jo walked into the middle of Alfred’s hotel room and stood as she watched him close the door. Acutely aware of her eyes on him, he turned to face her. 

“You’re a homicide detective,” he said matter-of-factly. “You investigate killings.” 

“Yes, that’s right,” she replied, wondering how he knew that. 

“Well, I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about any killings.” 

“Any cop,” she began, “would also investigate a potential scam.” 

“Ahhh, you’re here on behalf of our mutual friend, Dr. Morgan,” he said with a chuckle. 

“From what he tells me, you’re _not_ his friend,” she countered, arms crossed, and head tilted. “Exactly what are you peddling, Mr. Leuenberger --- if that’s even a real name?” 

“Oh, it’s a real name,” he assured her as he slowly took a few steps closer to her. “My real name. And I take great exception to my hard work being termed as ‘peddling’.” 

“What … hard work?” she asked as she put up her hand. “I can hear you from there,” she strongly advised him. She recalled Henry telling her that Alfred had slung his arm around his shoulders after which he’d experienced some time loss. 

Alfred chuckled again. “The good doctor seems to have divulged everything to you about our recent encounters.” She nodded. “I didn’t divulge everything to him about me, though, Detective,” he cautioned her, discarding his amiable appearance. 

The seasoned detective uncrossed her arms, her hand instinctively finding her weapon. She wanted to be ready to use it but now her hand seemed to move on its own and she unsnapped the holster. No matter how hard she tried to work against it, her movements continued. This was very different from what Henry had experienced which had probably been time jumps. Things were moving in real time for her but not in the way that she wanted. The sounds of her breathing and heartbeat became increasingly louder, drowning out all other sounds. Her hand shook as it unwillingly began to lift her gun out of its holster. What was going on? And why couldn’t she stop it? The gun was halfway out of the holster now. And she couldn’t speak! What the hell?! 

Alfred slowly stepped even closer to her but his concentration rested fully on her hand and the gun. “I don’t really want you to get hurt, Detective,” he told her. “I just need to let you and Dr. Morgan know that it’s possible ... if need be.” 

Something akin to terror began to unfold inside her but she worked hard to maintain a calm façade. She clung to the hope that he was only demonstrating a certain kind of control he could exert over her or anyone else for that matter. He just wanted to scare her, she told herself. No way was he going to have her shoot herself! Not an NYPD cop! Her blue brothers and sisters would be all over him in retaliation for no one would believe that she would do anything like that to herself. Not to mention what vengeful acts Henry might take against him. Just when she’d raised --- or been made to raise --- the gun to shoulder level, insistent banging on the door caught their attention. 

“Leuenberger! Leuenberger, you in there? Alfred Leuenberger, open up!” 

Jo recognized Abe’s voice filled with urgency and a good measure of anger. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the high heavens for the elderly gent’s latest unexpected interruption. Alfred’s control over her seemed to abruptly end. She held onto her gun, though, and pointed it at him. She motioned with it for him to move aside, which he calmly did with a slight roll of his eyes. 

“Don’t come in, Abe!” she shouted through the door while keeping her eyes on Alfred. “I’m coming out!” 

“Jo??” Abe called to her from the other side of the door. 

“Just stay out there, Abe!” she shouted again. 

“We’ll find a way to deal with you,” she hissed at Alfred. First Adam and now this creep! She switched the gun to her left hand and kept it pointed at him while she opened the door with her right hand. “I can promise you that.” 

“Be sure to tell Dr. Morgan what happened here,” he reminded her. “Make him understand that things can get worse so very quickly if he doesn’t give up his watch.” 

Jo stepped into the hallway and pulled the door behind her with a slam. She holstered her gun and smiled gratefully at a curious Abe. She laughed softly and pecked him on the cheek then grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway with her to the elevators. “C’mon,” she told him. “Let’s get away from here.” 

vvvv 

“That bastard!” Abe rasped once they were outside the hotel and after Jo had told him what had transpired just before he’d interrupted them. “Maybe if I talk to him,” he proposed. “Reason with him.” 

“There’s no reasoning with someone like that,” she told him, her gaze jumping upward to the building’s fourth story. “He means what he says and he aims to get what he wants,” she added. “At all costs.” 

Abe sighed and placed his hand on his brow for a second, then let it flop down. “If there was only some way that we could … I dunno … fight him. Get him outta Dad’s hair!” 

Something that Henry had told her suddenly popped into her mind. “We just might be able to,” she said, a slight smile working at the corners of her mouth. “C’mon,” she told Abe and linked her arm around his. 

”Where are we goin’?” he asked as she pulled him over to her car. 

“We’re gonna go talk to someone who can help us fight his magic with some of our own,” she replied as she herded him into the car. 

“Look,” he began, “the only other people that I know of who possess any type of magic are Dad and Adam. But I don’t think their immortality is enough to work against something like what you just described to me,” he admitted. “So, we got nuthin’; and nobody.” 

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,” she smugly remarked as she drove away from the hotel. “Two can play this game.” 

vvvv 

Back in Jo’s Washington Heights home, she and Abe filled Henry in on their recent encounter with Alfred at his hotel. 

“I don’t like the idea of either one of you putting yourselves in harm’s way for me,” he somberly admitted. “Although I do understand that you have a job to do as a police detective,” he told Jo before he turned his attention to Abe. 

“But you, young man,” he began as a kind, parental reproof, “should know better than to risk your wellbeing with the likes of someone like him. I know that I can’t order you to stay away from him since you’re a grown adult. But please take my advice and promise me that you won’t go near him again,” he pleaded. 

Abe blinked and looked away from him, then back at him, then away again before huffing out a sigh rolling his eyes. “Okay, okay, when you say it like that --- calling me ‘young man’ --- lets me know that you’re really worried.” He heaved a deeper sigh. “I promise to keep away from him.” 

“That Immortal Dad charm works just as well on me as the one he uses on the ladies,” Abe said. He glanced at Jo and added, “No offense.” 

“None taken,” she replied with a smile then looked at Henry. “And you’re right.” 

It tickled Abe pink to see his father blush while interacting with his love interest, Jo Martinez. It should have grossed him out but he was all too happy for the two of them to draw closer to each other. Even under circumstances like these. Whatever it takes, he gladly told himself. 

Henry managed to work past his embarrassment over his son’s remarks about his engaging charm. For quite some time, he’d only been interested to ‘wield’ it against Jo. He cleared his throat and dipped his head for a moment and looked at her. “What, ah, is this idea of yours?” he asked her. 

Jo held up a finger and then used it to activate her phone. She put up a finger again to shush the two men. “Lucas! Hi, this is Det. Martinez,” she schmoozed. “Would you know anything about something called The Book of Toth?” She waited while he responded. “Thoth. Thoth. My mistake.” She glanced from Henry to Abe as she said, “We need to know everything you know about it.” She nodded and then her eyes and mouth popped open wide. “Oh, we definitely need you to come over here and help us with that, then.” She listened further and then said, “Get over here as soon as you can.” She gave him the address to her home and ended the call. 

Abe was the first to speak. “So, Lucas is coming over here to help us do … what?” he asked, as confused as Henry. 

“There’s another book of Thoth,” she told them. “And Lucas knows Thoth.” 

VVVVVVVV 

Notes: 

Short chapter, I know, but the next one deals more with Alfred and who he is and WHY he needs Henry to bend to his will. Stay tuned and thanks for doing so.


	5. Tick Tock Ch 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Notes: 
> 
> I know I promised that this chapter would explore Alfred’s need to obtain Henry’s pocket watch but it hasn’t hatched itself fully in my mind. Hope you like this chapter and it should be hatched for the next chapter. 

* * *

_“We’ll find a way to deal with you,” Jo hissed at Alfred. First there was Adam that Henry had had to deal with; now_ **_this_ ** _creep! “I promise you,”_ _she_ _angrily added._

_“Be sure to tell Dr. Morgan what happened here,” he reminded her. “Make him understand that things can get worse so very quickly if he doesn’t give_ _up_ _his watch.”_

VVVVVVVV 

Abe hovered near the windows in Jo’s livingroom and peered out from behind the curtain onto the street below for any sign of Lucas. 

“Abe, a watched pot never boils,” his father teasingly reminded him. “Lucas will be here soon.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Oh!” Abe scooted over to the front door. “He’s here,” he said and opened the door, holding it open while Lucas exited a cab and loped up the stairs and into the house. Abe grinned and patted him on the back, then closed and locked the door. He followed him into the room but suddenly stopped when he caught his father’s eye. 

“Oh, sorry, Jo,” he began. “Didn’t mean to overstep my boundaries, lettin’ people into your home and all that.” 

“It’s okay, Abe,” she replied, flapping a hand at him. “Consider this your third home.” When met with looks of confusion from both Abe and Henry, she clarified, “Well, I assume that your second home is Fawn’s, right?” She chuckled at Abe’s blush and Henry’s grin as he rolled his eyes. 

“Lucas!” Henry said a bit loudly and unintentionally startling the young man in his efforts to take the focus off of his embarrassed son. “What have you brought us?” 

Lucas sat down on the end of the sofa and set his backpack down on the floor. He unzipped it and pulled out a laptop and a thick, three-sectioned notebook with frayed edges. While he got his laptop up and running, he explained that he didn’t actually have the second Book of Thoth but the next best thing. He connected his cell phone cord into the laptop’s USB port and brought up a file from it. He fast-forwarded through what appeared to be an animated depiction of the first Thoth book having been discovered and the archaeological team happily scurrying away with it. 

The animation continued but appeared to jump forward several centuries and showed a young female archaeologist discovering a second, less voluminous book. From there, a live-action documentary took over featuring the female archaeologist, Vivienne Archambeau, discussing her historic discovery. She spoke in her native tongue of French but the group was able to follow along by reading the English subtitles. 

“Here’s what we want,” Lucas said as he paused the video and pointed to the screen. “This is the page displaying three other magic spells.” 

He elaborated on the first one which turned out to be the third, previously unknown spell that Alfred had told Henry about. 

“Imagine a spell,” Lucas began, “that would attach immortality to inanimate objects.” He cast an amused look around at his companions and added, “The owners may not have even known.” His attention returned to the paused screen. “Well, if you believe in that stuff.” 

Henry cleared his throat and asked, “So, what are these other two spells?” 

Amused again, he looked at Henry and said, “You know, I notice that you do that when you’re nervous. You’re not … nervous, are you, discussing immortality?” 

“Um … no, no,” Henry protested. “Just sounds rather farfetched.” Secretly, he wished that it were the opposite. “Interesting but farfetched,” he added. He darted his eyes between Lucas and the screen as if to urge him to continue. 

“Huh. Well. Okay, um,” Lucas began. “This second spell is to remove the immortality from an object.” He scratched the top of his head and scoffed. “Not sure what I’d do if _that_ one really worked, either.” 

While Henry blinked and gulped again, Jo frowned slightly and bit her lower lip. Abe raised his eyebrows and rubbed his brow, stifling a nervous laugh. Jo released her lip and struggled to remain calm while she asked about the next spell. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Lucas replied. “This one is really cool,” he said as he pointed his long index finger down at the screen. “It banishes troublemakers.” 

“Like … demons,” Abe suggested. 

Lucas shrugged. “Maybe,” he replied. “Anyone who’s a drag on you, interrupts your good times, I guess.” 

Abe’s breath caught in his throat and he rolled his eyes away from his father and Jo as they both eyed him but fought to hide their amusement. Abe had only recently learned that he had interrupted what could have been a special moment when Jo failed to be able to tell Henry that she wanted to get lost in Paris with him. 

“What, ah, is in this notebook of yours?” Henry asked, genuinely interested. 

“My own mind scribblings about the spells,” he explained. “The writing’s hard to see on the screen, so I managed to get it all down in my notebook of suggested production ideas for my short films.” He opened it and leafed to a page then set it down on the coffee table. 

“In this scenario,” he started, “our protagonist --- he or she --- realizes that living forever actually kind of sucks since everybody around you eventually dies so they get rid of it by invoking an ancient chant they got from an ancient Egyptian scroll. Since their immortality is attached to an object they own, once it’s gone, the object loses its luster and its power.” 

He looked at Henry and his eyes dropped to the chain attached to Henry’s waistcoat. “In your case, if you were an Immortal,” he began, “the object would probably be that fancy pocket watch of yours. Wouldn’t that be something?” 

An amused Lucas looked curiously at Henry and awaited his reply. That look of curiosity from his assistant had been seen more frequently by Henry, making him increasingly uncomfortable to be around him for very long. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the young man, though. It was the growing guilt he felt for not coming clean with him as he had with Jo. 

“Yes, that would,” Henry agreed with a plastered-on smile. “Absurd as it is.” 

“Does this have to do with a case?” Lucas asked him and Jo. “Don’t tell me that we’re soon gonna do an autopsy on a mummy! Wait, I gotta write this down before I forget it,” he said. While he wrote in his notebook, he mumbled loudly enough for them to hear. 

“... while performing autopsy … comes back to life … sucks the life out of everyone in the morgue.” He finished writing and laid his pencil down on the notebook’s page. “Sorry; if I don’t write it down when it pops into my head, I might forget it.” 

“Cool, huh?” he continued. “They’re slicin’, they’re dicin’, its eyes pop open, it gulps air down into its once-dead lungs ---” 

“Yes, yes, it sounds … intriguing,” Henry said, interrupting him. It sounded disgusting to him, though. “Tell us about the banishment spell. Please.” 

vvvv 

“This sounds so much like witchcraft,” Henry said in a hoarse whisper of disparagement as he, Jo, and Abe entered the antique shop. 

“Back then they called them seers and oracles,” Abe corrected him. “This stuff has been around practically since the dawn of time.” 

“Well, whatever it is,” Jo began, “at least you have everything we need here in the shop. Now, it should be okay for us to improvise with modern-made items and equipment.” 

They consulted the notes that they’d taken from Lucas and gathered up the items on the list that would supposedly banish the troublemaker, Alfred. They then took the items downstairs into Henry’s basement laboratory where they could be afforded the greatest amount of privacy for what they were about to do. 

Once they had all of the items (one black candle; a candleholder; matches; black pepper; salt; a carving tool; and lavender oil), Jo set them all out on top of Henry’s desk. She held onto the notes while Henry stepped away to break out shot glasses and a bottle of whiskey. 

“Henry, we have to remain clear-headed,” she warned him. 

“I’m sorry, Jo,” he told her. “This is all so … unnerving. What if this banishment spell works and … and it works to kill the infernal man?” 

“Henry ---” 

“I don’t really want anyone else’s blood on my hands.” His voice was quiet but shaky as he poured himself a drink. But his hand betrayed him and shook as well. When he attempted to lift the glass, he gave up and set it back down on the desk with a thunk. 

Abe joined them after having put the tea kettle on to boil. He eyed the bottle of whiskey and the newly-poured drink. “Going for the hard stuff already,” he noted. “You always taught me that tea is better for calming the nerves,” he reminded his father. 

“We’re not killing anybody,” Jo assured Henry. “Remember, Lucas said it’s the specific words we speak in order to neutralize whatever powers Alfred may have. That’s what we concentrate on.” 

“Oh, and he failed to disclose which coven _he_ belongs to,” Henry facetiously remarked. 

“Dad,” Abe began. “If it works, it works without him dying. If it doesn’t, he still lives. I vote we try it.” 

Jo could see that Henry remained hesitant. “Let’s, um, do it this way,” she began. “I vote we sleep on it and see how we feel in the morning.” 

Henry chuckled. “You mean how I feel in the morning, don’t you? The two of you have already made up your minds. I’m just not … sure ...” 

“It’s okay, Henry,” Jo told him. “We’ll wait.” 

He turned to face her fully and smiled as he pulled her closer, his arms encircling her waist. “Don’t misunderstand me; it incenses me what he did to you earlier today. And I know that you think he was only trying to frighten you.” 

“I believe that,” she reiterated. He inhaled deeply and began to speak but she silenced him by laying her index finger against his lips. “Tomorrow,” she said again. It got a smile out of him and she flashed her own at him. While they hugged each other, Abe scooped up his father’s abandoned drink and tiptoed away with it. He gazed admiringly at the woman in his father’s arms who would certainly be his new stepmother one day and smiled warmly before disappearing up the stairs. 

VVVVVVVV 

Notes: 

Items for the banishment spell found at thetravelingwitch.com 


	6. Tick Tock Ch 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A banishment spell from the Second Book of Thoth might help Henry get rid of Alfred but he's reluctant to use it for fear it might kill the man. Jo and Abe feel it's best to table their efforts until the next day. Meanwhile, Alfred ponders his own fate and confronts his own selfish desires.

**Author's Note** : I apologize for the long wait for this update but I ran into a little writer’s block with this chapter. Hope you like it, though.

VVVVVVVV 

While Lucas visited and shared information with Henry, Jo, and Abe about the spells in the Second Book of Thoth, Alfred sat and pondered his own fate closely tied to Henry’s timepiece. And he needed to get his hands on it soon. While he believed that as long as it remained in someone else’s possession, time worked against him. Even though he knew nothing about their plans to delay casting the banishment spell against him until the next day, he only knew that his window of opportunity was slowly but surely closing. 

Retrieving the other six timepieces hadn’t been this hard, he inwardly groaned. The others had been more than happy to trade them for a chance at living a normal life again. Well … after a bit of persuasion. He brushed aside the memories of the anguished looks on their faces when he’d felt he’d had to tighten the screws with threats of violence against one of their loved ones.

Loved ones.

Why would an Immortal, who could probably enjoy most of the world’s riches, choose instead to surround themselves with mundane things like loved ones? Family. Trusted friends. An Immortal didn’t need to weigh themselves down with any of those mortal trappings, Alfred told himself. But it was helpful that they had since it had made it much easier for him to retrieve each of the six timepieces from them. 

Henry was proving to be much more territorial concerning his timepiece than the others had. Sentimental, perhaps, since he regarded it as a treasured family heirloom passed to him by his father as he lay on his deathbed. 

Alfred sighed again as he sat at the desk and stared into the ornate wooden box that held the three gold pocket watches, almost identical to Henry’s. The three men, the previous owners, hadn’t been that hard to track down, either, once he’d set his mind to do so. The recitation of an original spell concocted by his ancestor, Jeton, had did the trick. 

He’d found the first man, an African from Angola living and working in Amsterdam as a private tutor and who had just buried the last of his five children, his wife ten years earlier. To outsiders, unaware of his heartbreaking loss, he had simply buried several elderly relatives.

The second man lived and worked in Paris, desperately seeking anonymity in the Louvre Museum’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. Himself an antiquity of the oddest kind.

The third man lived in Monaco and fancied himself a professional gambler. But he’d long since grown weary of the many lonely men and women willing to pay for his companionship and finance his many trips to the roulette wheel or the bar. 

The three daintier, oval-shaped watch pendants adorned with sapphires and rock crystals had actually belonged to three sisters --- triplets --- born in the mid-1800s in what was known as Siam during the Rattanakosin Kingdom. Alfred actually had not had to threaten either of them for they eagerly looked forward to finally having lives that included life partners and children for the first time. 

But the power of the incantation that would transfer immortality onto himself was waning. He desperately needed Henry’s watch, the most magnificently-crafted one of all, in order to complete the collection of timepieces, the “Circle of Seven”. 

“To eat the fruit of the gods,” he murmured to himself as he stared at the empty spot where the seventh timepiece would rest. 

Three more days. That’s all the time he had left! It had taken him 15 years to track Henry down. No one in his family before him had come this close to realizing the dream that had eluded them for centuries. As he closed the lid on the box, he was torn between wishing his father had lived to see the progress he’d made and being selfishly thankful that only he would benefit from the completion of the spell. 

Lately, it had begun to bother him how selfish his thoughts had become. How selfish he had begun to feel. How hungry he was to snatch the gift of eternal life from others and pad his own with it. But what bothered him more was the sight of his now wrinkled hands. Would the spell truly revert him to the age of 35 like all the others were? Was that a magic age for those who had been granted this gift? He truly hoped so. But if it meant that he would remain white-haired, wrinkled, and paunchy forever … well … he could live with that, too. 

Alfred pulled off his reading glasses and laid them on the desk. He got up and walked over to stand in front of the dresser and peered at himself again in the mirror. He ran a hand over his white, unruly locks and poked at his wrinkled face. He remembered how his 35-year-old self looked as he stared into the mirror. Granted, he was nowhere near the “looker” that Henry was but he had done alright with the ladies. 

A remarkably resourceful man this Henry Morgan was, he thought to himself. At this very moment, he imagined that a plan was being hatched by the ME and his friends in order to thwart his efforts of obtaining that pocket watch. A fruitless effort, Alfred concluded. As long as they didn’t possess the information in the Second Book of Thoth, he consoled himself, his own plan could be taken to the next level. He felt that he was one step closer to Henry reluctantly gifting the watch to him in order to save the life of his friend, the lady police detective. Something told him that there was more to their relationship besides a professional one. 

“Please don’t force me to harm your lady friend, Dr. Morgan. Whether you believe it or not, it would trouble me greatly to have to do that.” 

VVVVVVVV 

**Notes** : 

Information about the Louvre found at 

[ https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/pa ](https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/paris/museums/louvre-museum/louvre-museum-departments-and-collections)


	7. Tick Tock Ch 7 Alfred Banished

_Alfred consoled himself with the belief that as long as Henry didn’t possess the information in the Second Book of Thoth, his own plan could be taken to the next level. He felt that he was one step closer to Henry reluctantly gifting the watch to him in order to save the life of his friend, the lovely police detective._

VVVVVVVV 

4:57 AM the next morning … 

A mildly sleep-deprived Henry stood in his basement lair while he studied the items again that were supposed to work in a banishment spell against Alfred. He’d asked for more time before they made the incantation and after reading and re-reading the instructions, he was finally convinced that with careful wording, it would at least not end Alfred’s life. Just as he picked up the thick, black candle to study it closer, he heard a creak on the stairs. He placed the candle back into its holder on the desk and checked the time on his pocket watch. 

“It’s three minutes before 5,” he said, turning his head slightly toward the sound. “Why aren’t you asleep?” He knew it was his son, Abe. Knew the creak of the stairs under his foot falls. 

“Same reason you aren’t,” Abe responded as he joined his father near the desk. “Do you feel any better about puttin’ the whammy on this guy?” 

Henry chuckled softly and turned to face him. “Actually, yes. I’m convinced that it if we’re very careful, it won’t result in his death. Once Jo is able to join us, we can proceed.” 

“Great!” Abe happily said, rubbing his hands together. “Eh, where is she, by the way?” 

“Still asleep in my bed,” Henry replied. 

“Ohhh?” an encouraged Abe virtually cooed. 

“Don’t get any wrong ideas, Abraham,” he sternly cautioned. “I slept on the settee.” 

“Ohhh,” a hope-dashed Abe grumpily replied. “Well,” he continued with a ragged sigh, “we might as well get things going on with breakfast, then.” He waited a couple of beats before adding, “At least one of these rooms will see some action.” 

Henry abruptly stopped and turned around midway up the stairs while one hand gripped the banister and the other was fisted and shoved against his hip. A stern look of rebuke was leveled at his son. 

Abe raised a finger and his eyebrows flew up. “That look doesn’t get to me the way it used to,” he proclaimed. But it still did. A smug lift of the immortal father’s eyebrow let him know that his lie was sniffed out. 

They reached the first-floor retail level and continued their one-sided conversation as they climbed the stairs to the second level. Abe continued to point out the flaws in the sleeping arrangements with their lovely young house guest while being met with only silence and an occasional roll of the eyes. 

“You know I’m right,” Abe said, pushing his point home. “Whether you admit it or not!” 

“Right about what?” Jo asked, a raised spatula in her hand and a good-morning smile on her lips. She had risen and started breakfast; and looked mouth-wateringly delicious herself in one of Henry’s undershirts and some NYPD sweat pants. 

“Oh, we were, ah,” Henry said then cleared his throat. “Just discussing how much activity goes on in the kitchen.” He motioned with a broad smile toward the eggs, bacon, and potatoes she was cooking as if to prove his point. 

“As opposed to the limited activity in other rooms,” Abe muttered. At Jo’s inquisitive look and his father’s scowl, he quickly headed toward the stairs. “I’ll go down and see if the morning paper’s here yet.” 

Jo turned an inquisitive look to Henry and he quickly morphed his features into a broad smile again. “I’ll … set the table,” he said and quickly went about it. 

Jo turned her attention back to her cooking, a look of soft regret on her face. She inwardly sighed and silently reprimanded herself again for having wished each time she’d woken up to find Henry next to her in bed. 

“Ever the gentleman,” she quietly observed and quickly flashed her own broad smile at _his_ now inquisitive look. 

vvvv 

6:33 AM … 

“Begin by slowly sprinkling salt in a counterclockwise circle,” Jo instructed Henry, “around you and your work area.” Although she was doing her best to speak in a natural tone, it was hard to keep from reciting the words in a slow, somber, monotone. Like a witch. A bona fide witch! 

She and Abe watched him intently as he did so. 

“Now, visualize the salt creating a barrier, protecting you during your ritual.” 

He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, then nodded for her to continue. 

“Call the target of your banishing spell to mind and carve your intention into the candle.” 

Alfred came into Henry’s mind and he carved, “Alfred will cease to have any power over …” He paused for a moment to consider something, then completed it with “... us.” 

“You may also wish to carve a banishing sigil into your candle,” Jo said as she read further. 

The sigil was carved in the form of a broken eternity symbol of a snake in the shape of a figure 8 with its tail in its mouth. 

“An uroboros,” Jo said when he showed it to her. “Only broken.” 

He nodded. “The opposite of the one in the Aterna case.” He then waited for her to continue. If his hunch was right, Alfred’s intentions were less benevolent than stated. Henry believed that he intended to use the collection to transfer immortality to himself. The broken uroboros added to the banishment spell would, hopefully, put an end to that, as well. 

He continued to comply with the instructions Jo read aloud. After he anointed his candle with the oil and sprinkled the pepper over it, he set the candle back into its holder and lit it. As he did so, he spoke his intentions aloud several times while the candle burned. 

Once it burned itself out, the three of them breathed a loud sigh of relief. Abe finally asked how long they would have to wait before they knew the spell had taken effect. 

“According to these instructions, once it burns out, it’s done,” Jo said with a shrug. 

They looked at each other and, apparently satisfied, the two men readied themselves to leave. Jo reminded them of something, though. 

“Since you didn’t burn the entire candle,” she pointed out, “it says here that you can carve a line halfway or a third of the way down the candle and confine your spell carving to the top portion.” 

Henry bent down to examine the candle. “It looks like it burned out after a third of the way on its own,” he said. “There appears to be no need for me to carve a line.” 

“W-well, do it anyway, do it anyway,” Abe nervously urged him while he waved his hand up and down at the candle. 

“Alright, Abraham, alright,” Henry told him in an effort to calm him down. After a few moments, he stood back up. “Done.” He looked at his son. “Feel better now?” he asked. 

“Yeah, just … just don’t want to leave anything out,” he explained, spreading his hands. “I mean, if we’re gonna do this, do it right. Right?” 

They both looked questioningly at Jo. “Done?” Henry asked. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, lowering the notes containing the spell’s instructions. “The rest of the candle can be reserved for another banishing spell.” 

Their silent, unshared thoughts fell to Adam and independently decided that the candle might be a good thing to keep around. Just in case. 

vvvv 

7:08 AM … 

Unlike the trio of newbie spell casters of 154 Stanton Street, Alfred was still enjoying the tail end of a restful night’s sleep. Not only had he convinced himself that his plan would work but that it would work soon and he would be unobstructed in his quest for immortality. Around 6:30, though, he’d startled out of a sleep turned suddenly restless. He sat up in bed and placed his hand over his heart and then on his forehead and then pat his chest a couple of times while taking a few deep breaths. He then shook his head vigorously as if to shake off a strange feeling of loss. As if something had been drained from him. 

After a few more deep breaths, he attributed the feeling to probably sleeping _too_ long from feeling _too_ confident. 

The self-styled treasure seeker threw back the bed covers and jumped out of bed, eager to meet the day. After a quick, hot shower, he emerged from the bathroom with thoughts of satisfying his hunger in the café across the street. That lonely feeling of having missed a travel connection (train, flight) by minutes hit him again but stronger this time. He’d dismissed it earlier but it now worried him. Enough for him to lurch over to the desk and yank open the bottom drawer. He swallowed at the sight of the ornate box that held the six timepieces. With shaky hands, he lifted it out of the drawer and placed it on the desk in front of him. 

Once he lifted the lid off, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the six timely treasures were still inside. But his breath caught in his throat when he realized that the gambler’s gold pocket watch --- the last timepiece he’d taken possession of --- had an almost translucent quality about it. It was … it was fading. Fading away! No … it was reverting, returning to its last owner. That gambling Gigolo! 

How was this possible? Alfred frantically searched his mind for an answer and finally hit on one that greatly troubled him. A counter spell. One that could only have been found in --- 

“No, it’s impossible,” he said out loud in disbelief. How could anyone else possibly have known about that obscure Second Book of Thoth and those long-ignored spells? 

“Not just anyone,” he rasped. “Henry Morgan. You somehow managed to get the help you needed to thwart me, didn’t you?” 

He gasped when the gambler’s pocket watch faded into nothingness. Returned. Returned to the gambler. Even more troubling was the sight of the three oval-shaped pendants growing more translucent by the second. Their embedded diamonds twinkled one last time as they vanished before his eyes. No, no, NO! Not after all his hard work, YEARS of tracking down the owners and wangling the timepieces away from them. No! 

Alfred stared helplessly as he witnessed the fruits of his hard labor vanish one by one before his very eyes until the box was empty. What was he to do now? Start all over? At his age, time was no longer on his side. Enraged, he picked up the heavy box that weighed at least 30 pounds without the lid and threw it and shattered the mirror above the dresser. 

While he sat on the side of the bed and mourned his losses, his thinking began to clear. So. They had managed to consult the second book. So could he. There had to be something in it that would work on his behalf; help him to recover the vanished timepieces before the owners even knew they had been returned to them. Yes … maybe time _was_ still on his side. 

It was now nearly 7:30. The anxious man quickly dressed into a non-descript, tweedy suit not unlike any of the others he owned and ten minutes later, left the hotel for the New York Public Library. As he approached the subway entrance, he noticed a heavy police presence near it and in the street. He elbowed his way to the front of the crowd of gawkers to see what was happening and if there was any way he could enter the station. With great disappointment, he saw that he wouldn’t be. A uniformed policewoman much taller and brawnier than he was, stretched her arms out and instructed him and the rest to disperse with a “Nothing to see here, folks”. 

But there was plenty. A tow truck was hitching up a car with a bullet hole in the windshield. Whoever had been driving, he reasoned, wouldn’t be driving again anytime soon. That is, if they had survived, at all. The blood spatter on the upper part of the driver’s seat and on the headrest, indicated they’d suffered some kind of upper body or head injury. 

“Just a shame,” the woman standing next to him said, shaking her head and frowning. 

“Did you see what happened?” he asked her. 

“No, no,” she replied. “But it was a plainclothes detective who got shot.” 

“A … female?” he cautiously asked. 

“Yeah,” a young man in a NY Yankees baseball cap and jacket chimed in. “Some crazy dude rode up on a motorcycle and just popped her. Right through the windshield.” 

“Did … did they catch him?” 

“Yeah, that’s him in the back of the squad car over there,” he replied as he pointed to a police car leaving the scene. “He woulda got away but I helped tackle him and hold him down,” he proudly added. 

“Was she alone?” He had a strange foreboding about all of this. 

“Nah, there was some curly-haired guy with a British accent in the car with her,” he replied. “Good thing he was some kinda doctor or maybe they’d have taken her away in a body bag instead of an ambulance.” 

Alfred’s heart sank. These events were totally out of his control. This wouldn’t do at all! He had to be able to control the situation if he was ever going to convince Henry to gift that darn pocket watch away! He certainly hoped that the stubborn immortal doctor wouldn’t think he had anything to do with harming his lady detective friend. 

A tow truck drove off with Jo’s car while the police presence and the crowd began to disperse. He caught up with the self-proclaimed hero who’d professed to having helped nab the shooter. 

“Would you happen to know which hospital they took the lady cop to?” he asked him. 

“Uh, yeah,” he replied over his shoulder as he jogged away. “Bellevue.” 

VVVVVVVV 

Spell found on the web site thetravelingwitch.com 

Slight reference to “Forever” TV show episode, “Fountain of Youth” S01/E03


	8. Tick Tock Ch 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jo pulls through but Henry decides that he's willing to do anything to keep her safe. Even if it means giving up his immortality. Meanwhile, Alfred finds a counter-spell that would once again give him the power to wangle Henry's pocket watch away from him. As the clock ticks, who will win out in this "timely" drama? And I deeply apologize for this very short chapter.

_A young man in a NY Yankees baseball cap and jacket told Alfred, “Some crazy dude rode up on a motorcycle and just popped her (Jo). Right through the windshield.”_

_VVVVVVVV_

The young vigilante said that Det. Martinez had been taken to Bellevue. Alfred’s planned trip to the library to consult the second book suddenly took on more urgency. It was a given that whether the young woman survived or not, her immortal friend would conclude that he had had something to do with her getting injured. There was no time for the subway. He hurried to the curb and hailed a cab. 

vvvv 

Meanwhile, at Bellevue … 

In the waiting room, an agonized Abe sat next to his equally agonized father while they waited for Jo to come out of surgery. On the couch next to them sat Jo’s mother, Eva, and her sister, Rita, their faces blanched with fear and dismay. From what Henry had witnessed of Jo’s injuries, the outlook was not hopeful; but he dared not share his thoughts with them or even with Abe. 

_“The bullet entered the left side of her neck,” he had told Abe. “It damaged_ _one of the higher cervical nerves.”_

As a physician, Henry knew all too well about that cervical region of the spinal column and that it has the greatest range of motion and least stability, which makes it the easiest to injure. He knew that even if she survived the surgery, she could be facing paralysis of the upper and lower body. 

Henry felt that he had to depend on the surgeon’s capable hands and modern medicine now being advanced enough so that his Jo, his precious Jo, would not have to face life as a quadriplegic. A young, vibrant woman such as she might not crumble after being dealt such a cruel fate, being the strong, determined soul that she was. He was sure that she would face it head on … and he would be there to help her through. 

But there was also a glimmer of hope that she would merely suffer spinal shock. A condition caused by swelling of the spinal cord, which can significantly reduce blood flow. Bodies need blood to fuel cellular activity. Without it, the body can start to dysfunction such as temporary loss of reflexes, motor control, and sensation below the level of injury. 

“Here,” he heard Abe say to him as he nudged his arm and held out a cup of coffee to him. 

Henry took it from him, offering a pained smile of thanks. He took a quick sip and lowered it, then set it on the small end table next to him. The two distraught women excused themselves to find a restroom. 

“He did this to her,” Henry said after they were out of ear shot, his voice hoarse with accusation against Alfred. 

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Abe began. “What if he didn’t?” Henry turned a doubtful frown to him. “The spell was already cast,” he explained. “The idiot who shot Jo said he did it to get even with her for collaring his brother six months ago for puttin’ out a hit on his ex.” 

Henry frowned, still not convinced. 

“And don’t you think that if he was behind this,” Abe continued, “He’d have been down here in a flash to bargain your watch away from you?” 

“Yes, I … I suppose you’re right,” Henry replied. He looked in the direction of the operating room down the hall. “Then, what happened to her is just ---” 

“---just fate,” Abe finished for him. 

Over the next three hours, and Alfred didn’t show or contact them, Henry became more and more convinced that his son was right. When reality of the situation began to set in, he also arrived at a decision. No matter the outcome --- whether Jo made it through with flying colors or not --- he couldn’t go through this again. He’d held onto his own immortality for more than two centuries and was willing to let it go for almost anything but this time … for her. He pulled out his watch and snapped it open. He held it up to his ear and listened to the almost inaudible tick tock sound of its tiny but expertly crafted mechanism. 

Abe studied his father while he handled his watch, a question forming in his mind. Before he had a chance to voice it, the doctor who’d operated on Jo walked up to them. Both men jumped to their feet at the same time that Eva and Rita rejoined them. They all anxiously listened to the doctor’s explanation of the post-operative results. 

“So it is spinal shock she’s suffering,” Henry said with a breath of relief. Not the severe damage that resulted in permanent paralysis. She would still face a long and difficult recovery. 

The doctor echoed his thoughts and added, “We’ll know more in the next couple of days when the swelling goes down.” 

“W-when can we see her?” Eva anxiously asked while Rita clung to her side. 

“Tomorrow morning,” Dr. McCormick replied. He offered a soft smile of encouragement to them and walked away. 

A shaken but relieved Rita told her mother that she had to leave to go pick up her kids from school but that she would return later. Eva insisted on staying. Rita left and Eva was alone with Henry and Abe. They each took their seats again and smiled at each other. 

“I’m so glad you were there with her,” Eva told Henry. “They say your initial efforts probably saved her life. Thank you.” 

Henry shook his head. “Believe me, Mrs. Martinez,” he replied. “It was the EMT’s and Dr. McCormick who are the miracle workers. I’m just glad that she came through the surgery all right.” 

vvvv 

In the library, a frustrated and impatient Alfred sat at one of the computers and clicked the mouse as he flipped through the virtual pages of the second book. When he found the page that contained the banishment spell, he paused. He had been banished! His powers had been neutralized against Henry. Possibly against everyone connected to him. He leaned back in his chair and cursed loudly. A young boy giggled and he turned to his right to see the very amused boy with his angered mother standing behind him. 

“There are young children here, Mister!” she harshly reminded him. 

He pressed print and rose from his seat to retrieve the copy from the nearby printer. “My apologies, Madam,” he replied. “But this is New York. I’m sure the boy has heard much worse. Most likely in your own home.” 

Copy in hand, he chuckled to himself as he left the boy more amused and his mother even more angered by his insensitive remarks. 

During the taxi ride back to his hotel, he realized what he had to do. He had to reverse the banishment spell against him by doing everything in reverse. That is, he assumed they had used a black candle. He would use a white one. Instead of a barrier of salt, he would use black pepper to obliterate their barrier. And instead of sprinkling pepper on the candle, he would sprinkle salt. Lavender oil could still be used to douse the candle, though. Once the counter spell was cast, he had to move quickly to bargain Henry’s timepiece away from him. And once that was done, he could recall the other six timepieces. Three days. Just enough time for him to accomplish what he needed to do but he had to move quickly; he’d already wasted one full day. 

VVVVVVVV 

Notes: 

Information on spinal cord injuries and paralysis found at 

[ https://www.flintrehab.com/paralyzed-from-the-neck-down ](https://www.flintrehab.com/paralyzed-from-the-neck-down/#:~:text=Becoming%20paralyzed%20from%20the%20neck%20down%20after%20a,the%20upper%20and%20lower%20body%20is%20called%20quadriplegia.)


	9. Tick Tock Ch 9 Curtains for Alfred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this is NOT the final chapter but the next one most likely will be. Alfred realizes it's curtains for him on his quest for immortality. Jo survives not one but two emergency surgeries but thanks to Henry, she may now be able to survive anything. Anything. And what of Henry? And will Alfred really throw in the towel?

The next morning, Jo lay awake in her hospital bed and stared at the ceiling, unable to move her head without pain and because of the endotracheal tube inserted through her nose and into her wind pipe. The fluid lines hooked up to her were an unfortunate familiarity after having suffered gunshot wounds before; but the heart monitor. That was a new one. 

Dr. McCormick had explained her condition to be spinal shock. Thankfully, it was a temporary condition but she wondered if she would recover completely enough to keep her job with the NYPD. Would she be able to climb the stairs in her home anymore? Lift her arms?! She hadn’t been able to ask the doctor these or any questions and neither had Henry or her mother. They may simply have feared what the answers would be. That her life would be drastically changed from now on --- for the worst. 

She could partially see her mother lying on a cot near the window, doing her best to appear to be napping. Jo knew that her Mama was more than likely praying with her eyes closed in an effort to fight back tears. Talking to God, her Mama always called it. Silent prayer. It both endeared her to her mother and dismayed her. Mama had prayed for years for her wayward husband, Jo’s father, to “see the light” and abandon his criminal ways. After he’d wound up in prison, serving time for second-degree manslaughter, Mama had happily declared that her prayers had been finally answered because he was “no longer causing troubles on the streets” for himself and others. 

Now, Mama was praying for her to be able to even stand up and walk. Feed herself. Dress herself. Groom herself. Both Mama and Henry had promised to “be there for her” for whatever she needed. 

Jo closed her eyes and fought back her own tears. _“I need to be ME again!”_ she screamed to herself. She needed her life back. Her eyes popped open when she felt a warm, gentle kiss on her forehead. Henry. Even though she tried to smile, a tear left her eye and ran down the side of her face. No. There was no time for tears. She had to be strong. 

“Hello, Darling,” Henry whispered to her. 

She saw right through his pained smile. His reddened eyes and the dark circles underneath them told her that he hadn’t slept from worrying over her. Oh, she hated this! And she asked herself again, how could she have let that gun-wielding creep get the drop on her like that? Dang! Well, at least he was in custody. She knew who had attacked her and their reason for having done so. Didn’t understand it but at least she was sure that he would go down for it. 

She blinked her reply. _“Don’t pay any attention to that tear,”_ she silently teased him as he gently wiped it away. _“Just an uncontrolled bodily reaction.”_ But almost as soon as the thoughts formed in her mind, she felt that something was wrong. Very wrong. Everything was suddenly becoming darker, her panic growing. 

“Jo, something’s happening to you,” he worriedly began. “Something that I had feared but hoped would not. There’s no time, Darling.” She felt something familiar in her hand, something smooth and round. His watch. “Take my watch. I gift it to you.” 

_“Henry --- I, I can’t --- that would make you ---”_ Somehow, though, he heard her silent protest. 

“It would keep you with me. Keep you with us.” He now closed her hand over the watch with both of his own. “Take it, Jo. Please take it,” he frantically whispered to her. 

In her mind, she accepted it. She didn’t want to die and be taken away too soon from loved ones. 

The monitoring equipment’s alarms alerted the nursing staff and Dr. McCormick was called. Henry and Eva were rushed out of the room as the staff worked on Jo. Her would-be husband and mother clung to each other in the hallway while Jo was whisked out of her room and back into emergency surgery. They closed their eyes and clung tighter to each other. Both prayed for Jo’s healing but Henry also clutched the watch in his hand as he hugged Eva to him and he prayed that his unfounded theory was correct --- and that his Jo would return to him, if things came to that. 

vvvv 

After three more hours of waiting, Jo came out of surgery again. The surgery was needed to repair a blockage in the artery at the base of her brain. Although she appeared to have successfully weathered the second surgery, it felt as though her condition was worsening. 

“Ay, Dios mio,” Eva lamented. “I don’t know what I would do without my Chiquitita,” she tearfully confided. 

Henry smiled at hearing the term of endearment. What, indeed, would he do without his precious Jo? He believed the lore of his pocket watch. But something told him that his own long life would still continue. 

vvvv 

Over the course of the next two days, repeated attempts to undo his banishment went awry for Alfred. He’d felt that this was his only hope. And he’d come so close! He wasn’t a warlock or sorcerer; just a student of the dark art. For those two days, he’d barely eaten or slept. Running low on funds, energy, and options, he sank, defeated, onto the bed. He looked around at the common, little room he occupied and realized that time was running out for him. In the next instance, he jumped to his feet and watched in jaw-dropped horror at the sight of the ornate box that had once held the six timepieces, grow more and more translucent and finally vanish. Disappointed, angered, and frightened, he slowly sat back down on the bed. 

What was he to do now? Start again? No. It was over. His quest for eternal life on earth was over. After more than 40 years --- most of his adult life --- his relentless pursuit … was over. 

At this point, he was sure that the good doctor had relinquished ownership of his watch to his beloved lady detective, leaving himself to live out a mortal existence once again. How honorable. And how expected of him to do so. 

Alfred consoled himself only slightly with the knowledge that he’d been able to repair the broken mirror before the hotel management had found out about it. The little things he’d learned would help him to do just that: little things now and then as he continued in his mortal life. He stood up and walked over to check his reflection in the mirror again. A shave and a haircut, maybe try some of that hair-darkening formula, an updated wardrobe … might make things a little easier. But first, there was something he had to do in connection with his dreams now shattered: have himself a big, blubbery cry! 

VVVVVVVV 

**Author's Notes:**

Had to go back and correct this chapter from Jenry being married in this fic. They're not. Chalk it up to a senior moment.


	10. Tick Tock Ch 10 He's Alive!

_“Jo, darling; take my watch,” Henry desperately implored Jo. “I gift it to you. It would keep you with me --- with us.”_

_Unable to respond verbally, she silently accepted it as he placed it in her hand and closed it with both of his own._

VVVVVVVV 

Less than 30 minutes later, an astonished Henry and Eva watched Jo being brought back to her hospital room. Those attending her appeared to be relieved and happy with no sense of urgency about them. Jo appeared to be both alert and mobile, and the breathing tube was now removed. 

Dr. McCormick walked up to them and, through a smile, told them that Jo had suddenly recovered. “We’re going to run some more tests,” he cautioned, “to be on the safe side; but it looks like she’s going to be fine.” 

Grateful and relieved, Henry reached into his pocket and clutched the watch that he’d retrieved from her right before they’d wheeled her out of the room. 

“Can we go in and see her?” Eva eagerly asked. 

The doctor happily motioned toward the door to Jo’s room. “Sure. Go ahead. She’s awake.” 

vvvv 

Just two days after she was discharged, Jo was already thinking of returning to work. Lt. Reece had insisted, though, that she take at least two weeks that included twice-weekly therapy sessions to ensure her mental and emotional fitness to return. Reluctantly, she’d agreed but she divided her time between home, her mother’s home, and increasingly more time spent with the Morgan men at their residence over the shop. 

The visits usually included a delicious afternoon or evening meal cooked by Abe and shared with him and Henry. Tonight, was no different. But the topic of conversation eventually turned --- as it had more frequently --- to Jo’s speedy recovery and the wound on her neck that had healed to nonexistence. 

“Alright,” Henry promised Jo. “This will be the last time that we speak of it,” referring to her … condition. 

“All I mean is,” she clarified, “since we don’t now know what to expect, it’s best that we just … wait and see how all this plays out. No use speculating.” 

Abe ate in self-induced silence and took in their conversation while he avoided looking directly at them. He had his own thoughts about his father’s watch and how it may have helped Jo in her recovery but he no longer commented on the situation, and elected to take her wait-and-see attitude. And even though Alfred had remained out of their lives since they’d cast the banishment spell, he wondered if they had really seen the last of him. He viewed Alfred as more of a nuisance (as opposed to Adam being a murderous threat) but still an unnecessary and unwanted disruption to their otherwise peaceful existence. 

The other unspoken had to do with whether or not Henry was indeed now mortal again. Of course, they all knew that there was a way to quickly find out but the risk was too great for any of them to even contemplate. It would be easier if they simply waited to see if Henry grayed and wrinkled --- and if Jo did not. 

For the most part, the trio maintained their mutual agreement to keep their ponderances to themselves about what they might face in their new realities; and to only share with each other irrefutable evidence of any changes. And as the two weeks of Jo’s leave came to a close, everyone looked forward to her return to work. 

vvvv 

“Heyyy, welcome back, partner!” Hanson cheerily greeted Jo as she entered the bullpen and was also met with a chorus of welcomes from the other 20 or so co-workers present. Mike rushed over to her desk and pulled her chair out with a flourish. 

She stopped just short of the chair and leveled an “Oh, c’mon” look at him. 

“Just tryin’ to be gallant here,” he explained. In a lowered voice, he said, “Really glad to have you back, Jo.” 

She relaxed her features into a soft smile and allowed him to seat her. “It’s good to be back,” she told him. 

His desk phone rang and he quickly went over and answered it. “Hanson … yeah …" He grabbed a pencil and wrote on a small pad as he listened to the caller on the other end. “Got it.” He hung up the phone and walked back over to her desk with a small piece of paper in his hand. 

“Don’t tell me,” she said. “We got a body.” He nodded. “Good thing I’ve already had my coffee,” she added, bugging her eyes. 

She then grabbed her jacket and trotted out of the bullpen to catch up with her official crime-solving partner just as he punched the elevator’s down button. She whipped out her phone when he said “better call the Doc”. 

vvvv 

The two detectives, their ME, and his young assistant entered a stylishly comfortable West 57th Street apartment where they found a husky young man with brown eyes and sandy hair seated on the couch in the living room. Surrounded by uni’s, he appeared calm and cooperative while he was questioned. 

“Body’s in here,” Ofc. Freitas said when he saw them. He led them down the short hallway and into the bedroom. In the bed, a diminutive, blonde woman lay under the covers on her side with her face half-buried in the pillow. Were it not for the cuts and bruises on her face and arms, one would assume that she was simply slumbering, although not peacefully. 

“What’s the deal here?” Hanson asked Freitas as he studied the motionless woman. 

“Male is Sebastian Powell,” Freitas replied matter-of-factly. “This is his girlfriend, Aida Quintero. Claims he left for work but returned 30 minutes later for some papers he’d left and … found her like this.” 

“You make him for this?” Mike asked him. 

“That’s for you detectives to find out,” he replied. “I just catch ‘em and cuff ‘em.” He then left the room and returned to keep guard over Sebastian. 

“Kind of a smart-ass attitude,” Jo said condemningly. 

“Not surprising,” he replied dismissively. “I hear he wants to be Commissioner before being Police Chief.” He turned his attention back to Henry and Lucas. “What ya think, Doc?” 

Henry stood by the side of the bed, his arms at his side and his head tilted as he studied the young woman. “Well, her injuries do indicate that she has recently been involved in a violent altercation. One that she apparently lost.” 

He ignored the knowing look the two detectives gave each other and bent down again to look closer at Aida. His frown deepened and he dropped to his knees. “Call an ambulance right away!” he urgently instructed them. 

Aida suddenly and loudly heaved in a deep breath of air and rolled over onto her back. Henry worked to keep her calm and lying down. A sigh of relief escaped him and he smiled up at Jo and Mike. “She’s still alive.” 

Aida’s eyes popped open and she sat straight up, grunting and flailing her arms at an invisible attacker. Henry struggled to grab both of her arms but her adrenaline rush gave her the strength to continually slip out of his grasp. Lucas was the closest to them and just when he reached out to help Henry control the frightened woman, she jumped to her feet and lunged at Henry. Her forward momentum caused him to stumble backward and fall out of the open window down to the alley ten stories below. Jo managed to get her in a headlock from behind and with help from Mike and Lucas, they managed to wrestle her down to the floor. 

“Jo,” Hanson said to her when she failed to release her grip on the once again motionless woman. 

She had killed Henry! The thought, the reality of it blared loudly over and over in her mind. Jo gritted her teeth and squeezed harder with both arms. 

“Jo! Let ‘er go!” Hanson yelled at her as he tried to loosen her grip on the woman. “She’s not worth it! Not worth losin’ your badge! Let go!” He couldn’t believe how strong she was. He wordlessly enlisted Lucas’ help. 

“This … bitch killed Henry!” she choked out. “No!” she shrieked as the two men finally managed to loosen her grip and pull her away. 

“Ambulance is here,” Ofc. Freitas informed them. His eyes roamed over them and the unconscious Aida. “Where’s Dr. Morgan?” 

Lucas had reluctantly looked out of the window, dreading what he would see. What he saw made him freeze, though. Nothing. At least … no Henry in a body-mashed pool of blood in the alley below. Could it be? he asked himself. Could it really be …? He turned around to face the officer. 

“He left,” he replied. “Uh … urgent matter back at the morgue.” Yeah. He’d left alright. But where had he gone? Where did people who couldn’t really die disappear to? Maybe he’d flown away like some as-yet-unnamed super hero. Maybe he’d vanished as soon as he’d hit the ground and materialized somewhere else and was now safe and sound somewhere else. 

“Funny,” Freitas said, frowning, his eyes darting back and forth. “I didn’t see him come out.” He looked directly at them. “Must have gone out the back way,” he concluded. 

“Yeah,” Lucas agreed. 

The paramedics entered the room to tend to Aida so Hanson and Lucas guided Jo out of the apartment. They studied her, worried over her continued silence and the stark terror in her eyes. Worried that she had nearly killed someone with her bare hands. She also worried over Henry’s fate for of course the fall had killed him but had he revived in the river? She hadn’t had the courage or the time to look out of the window. 

Hanson, unlike Lucas, believed that Henry had died and what they would find in the alley was not going to be a pretty sight. A sight that he felt he should protect Jo from seeing. 

Lucas simply didn’t know what to think. He knew what he should have seen (and hadn’t) but was too stunned and confused to voice his thoughts to either of his two companions. 

Despite Hanson’s resolve to protect Jo from getting anywhere near the alley, once the elevator hit the ground floor and the doors opened, she bolted out and ran down the long hallway to the back of the building. The two men ran after her and followed her to the spot in the alley where Henry’s bloodied and mangled body should have lain but … it wasn’t there. Up until then, Jo had barely taken in a full breath. Now, she laughed. Loudly. Thankfully. For there wasn’t a trace of him. No evidence that he’d been in the alley at all alive or dead. 

“Wha---? Well --- is this the right spot?” Hanson asked, totally confused as he looked around for any sign of Henry. He frowned at Jo as she laughed and cried at the same time. She began to shout “He’s alive, he’s alive!” and Hanson frowned more. 

“Whaddaya mean he’s alive?” he asked her. When she didn’t reply but just whipped out her phone and called Henry’s roommate, Abe, he looked to Lucas for answers. 

“I don’t understand what’s happening here! Do you?” Hanson, who’d expected the worst, was desperate for answers. 

“All I know is that the Doc is not dead,” Lucas slowly told him, carefully choosing his words. His face was filled with wondrous anticipation. “I don’t know _where_ he is --- but wherever he is, he’s okay.” 

VVVVVVVV 

I Googled to find out if fire escapes are on all apartment buildings in NYC and found this at “People Also Ask”: “Fire escapes are not installed on new residential buildings thanks to a 1968 building code change. ... Buildings built before 1968 can have their fire escapes removed, but your landlord has to prove that there is another way to exit the building in an emergency.” 


	11. Tick Tock Ch 11 END

_Hanson was totally confused as he looked around for any sign of Henry in the alley. He frowned at Jo as she laughed and cried at the same time, and began to shout “He’s alive, he’s alive!”_

VVVVVVVV 

“I don’t understand what’s happening here!” Hanson repeated. He looked back and forth at Jo and Lucas but became more frustrated when neither of them offered any explanations for their better acceptance of what had to be Henry’s terrible fate. 

Jo was still on the phone but was now speaking with Lt. Reece. “There’s no murder here,” she informed her boss. “Looks more like an assault so --- yes,” she replied, nodding. “I’ll let them know.” With that, she ended the call and dropped her phone back into her jacket pocket. She closed her eyes and took in two deep breaths and released them before she spoke. 

“Lieu’s going to contact the MCS (Major Case Squad) to take charge of this investigation since there’s no dead body.” 

“Okay, uh, so we stay here until they show up,” Hanson said. 

“Mike, could you?” Jo asked. “There’s somewhere I have to be,” she breathlessly added. 

“Yeah, but --- what the hell happened to the Doc?!” he asked again, his level of frustration overtaking his confusion. 

“Mike, it’s, um … complicated,” she stammered as she began to back away. “But I really have to go. You’re the best for staying to hand this off to Major Case.” 

Lucas had spent his time surveying the alley for any sign that his enigmatic boss had been there. There just had to be something, he told himself. Then, he saw it. Something small, round, and golden in color about ten feet away from where his body should have lain. He quickly went over and picked it up. That beautiful old pocket watch of his! He then quickly turned and jogged over to Jo. 

“This, uh, belongs to him,” he quietly said and held it out to her. 

She carefully took it from him and smiled up at him, realizing that he at least partially understood the situation. “Thank you, Lucas.” She took one last look at the both of them and said, “I’ve gotta go, guys. See you later!” 

Hanson joined Lucas as they both watched her run out of the alley toward her car. His jacket open, he shoved his fists against his hips and asked, “Say, was that the Doc’s watch you just gave her?” Lucas nodded. He grabbed Lucas by the arm and turned him around to face him. “How’d his watch wind up in this alley if he never was?” He paused and asked, “Or … was he?” His eyes narrowed at Lucas. “You know what happened here. Tell me.” 

Lucas gulped and managed to reply, “It’s a … wild story.” 

vvvv 

Two detectives from the MCS showed up ten minutes later and Hanson practically shoved Lucas out of the apartment building onto the street. There, they commandeered a uni for a ride. 

“Sure, Detective,” Ofc. Wheaton replied. “Back to the precinct?” she asked as she started up the car. 

“No,” he replied. “Corner of Stanton and Suffolk.” 

“Ya know, there’s a shop on that corner called Abe’s Antiques,” she replied, smiling. “My Mom likes to shop there,” she explained. “Dead body over there?” she asked, concerned. 

Dead body? “We’ll find out when we get there,” he grumbled his cryptic reply. 

vvvv 

Once they arrived, Wheaton pulled up alongside Jo’s car that was parked outside the shop. Hanson and Lucas thanked her, then got out, and she drove away. Hanson studied Jo’s car for a few moments then they walked up to the shop’s entrance to find it locked with the Closed sign showing. Lucas tugged futilely at the door’s handle, then looked at Hanson and shrugged. Hanson took out his cell phone and dialed Jo’s number. 

“Hey, Jo,” he said when she answered. “Mind lettin’ us in?” He listened and nodded. “I’m a detective; I figured it out.” He sighed. “Well, not all of it exactly but I figured you’d be here. So, how ‘bout it? We get in?” He closed his eyes and nodded again and then ended the call. Still holding his phone, he let his hand flop down by his side. 

In the next few moments, they saw Henry’s roommate, Abe, descend the stairs at the back of the shop and make his way toward them. Once at the door, he eyed both men and hesitated a couple of seconds before opening it. 

“Come on in,” he told them with great resignation. He didn’t like this at all. Jo, he trusted to keep Dad’s secret. Lucas, maybe. Probably. He just wasn’t sure about Hanson. The way that Dad and Jo had always described him made him sound too down-to-earth. Too ready not to believe anything weird or out of the ordinary. He didn’t think the man to be dishonest but if he totally rejected Dad because of his strange condition, he could still cause trouble for him, making it difficult if not impossible for Dad to remain in New York. But because of what Jo had told them about the two men’s level of exposure to finding out the Immortal’s secret, Dad had insisted that they be allowed to enter the shop if they showed up. So … here they were. Neither of them really welcomed by Abe and one less welcome than the other. 

The two men followed Abe up the stairs and into the living area. There, they found Henry and Jo sharing what appeared to be a loving embrace. Under any other circumstances, they would have felt the need to celebrate, believing they had broken ahead of their fellow bettors in the dating pool. Abe nervously cleared his throat and the couple slowly pulled away from each other although they continued to gaze into each other’s eyes. 

“Yes, Abraham,” Henry said, still gazing and smiling at Jo while caressing her cheek. She stepped away from him and sat down on the couch. He turned his smile to them and clasped his hands behind his back. “Gentlemen. Please have a seat. I feel I owe you both an explanation.” 

“Damn straight you owe us an explanation!” Hanson virtually barked at him, stepping closer to him. “How did you survive that fall?” 

“Y-you’re from another planet, right?” Lucas asked in amazed anticipation. 

“I can assure you that I was born right here on earth,” Henry replied, chuckling, in spite of his own nervousness. “Just not in the year that you think I was.” 

“Not in the year --- Doc!” Hanson loudly replied, still frustrated. 

“Please,” he urged them. “Take a seat and I’ll explain everything to you.” 

A wary Hanson slowly sat down on the couch next to Jo and a very eager Lucas. Abe handed Hanson a glass of scotch. He mumbled something about not drinking on the job. 

“Believe me,” Abe assured him. “You’re gonna need it.” 

vvvv 

“Immortal,” Hanson repeated to himself, chuckling. “Immortal. Guy can’t really die.” 

“Oh, but he can,” Lucas reminded him with a raised index finger. “He just … shakes it off somehow and pops up naked in the East River.” 

“Whenever he’s been in New York City,” Hanson added. He scratched his forehead and huffed out a sigh. “Stands to reason that there are a ton of other public arrests for him in other parts of the country or even the world, stretching back to --- I dunno when.” 

“At least back to 1814,” Lucas said. 

Hanson rode shotgun in Jo’s car while she drove him and Lucas, in the back seat, back to the precinct. Abe and Jo had convinced Henry to stay home, take a breather after this most frightening and unexpected death. Not only had he been killed but it had happened right in front of her and his two other colleagues. The emotional toll it had taken on him was unmistakable. The fact that he’d chosen to come clean to Lucas and Hanson about his mind-boggling truth meant that he desperately wished to hold onto what he had in New York at this time with Jo and Abe, as well as with them. He also had seen no other option than to let them in, as Abe said. But neither he nor Jo had disclosed anything to them about her new, strange condition. That was a story for another time and only if she cared to share it with anyone outside of Abe and him. 

“I still can’t get over the fact that the old guy ---” Hanson said before being interrupted by Jo. 

“--- Abraham,” she interjected. “Henry’s son’s name is Abraham.” 

“Yeah,” Lucas said with an ear-to-ear grin. “That is totally cool.” 

“Uh, I don’t know how cool it would be if my kids grew to look older than me,” Hanson countered. “My wife, either. I mean it’s just ---” His words abruptly stuck in his throat and he slowly looked over at Jo. “Slap me, Jo,” he said. “Me and my big mouth.” 

“It’s okay,” she told him as she pulled up to the precinct and parked. She turned off the ignition and looked at both of them. “But you guys know not to share any of what Henry told you with anyone.” They both nodded vigorously. “This is important, guys. No one must know. If it gets out and he feels he’s in danger, he’ll run. And he’s got 200 years of experience on how to hide. We want him to stay here with us, right?” 

Hanson raised his right hand. “Scout’s honor, Jo.” 

Lucas raised his right hand. “Eagle Scout’s honor.” 

They piled out of the car and entered the precinct while Jo grinned and shook her head at a dubious Hanson grilling Lucas on his claim of his past rank of Eagle Scout and staunchly standing by that claim. 

vvvv 

The next day, Henry was back in the morgue. Although Major Case had taken over the case of the possible assault of Aida Quintero, his three colleagues and Lt. Reece had questions and had sought out his opinion. 

“In my opinion, Ms. Quintero was not assaulted but suffers from a rare form of epilepsy. In most case, the afflicted may have uncontrollable tremors, twitching or jerking movements. This could happen on one or both sides of the face, arms, legs or even the whole body. It could start in one area and then spread to other areas, or it could stay in one place. In her case, she experienced the type of episodes that have increased in violence over the past several months.” 

“And you know all that because …,” Hanson began. 

“Because, unfortunately, I’ve seen it before,” he somberly replied. “It’s a shame, though. With proper treatment and medication, I’m sure that her illness could be better controlled.” 

“Apparently, that wasn’t happening,” Jo said with sadness. 

“I wonder why her boyfriend, if he really cared about her,” Lucas began, “didn’t help her get treatment.” 

“I suppose he was in denial,” Henry offered, his eyes cast downward. “Perhaps he thought that he could handle things for her on his own.” His gaze found each of theirs. “I know for a fact how important it is to have family, friends, who can truly be counted on.” 

The small group looked around at each other and nodded. Henry and Jo were thankful for the support and acceptance they received from their two respective partners, Lucas and Hanson. Their partners, in turn, thankful and grateful for the new lovebirds having entrusted them with Henry’s great secret. 

vvvv 

In another part of the city, the perpetually bed-ridden Adam received a visitor. The man was unfamiliar to him. If he could have, he would have frowned as he tried to place the man. Bespectacled, clean-shaven, silver hair neatly coifed and he was dressed as dapperly as his semi-frequent visitor, Henry Morgan. Beyond that, Adam had not a clue as to the man’s identity or why he was visiting him. But unbeknownst to the ancient Immortal, his visitor knew plenty about him. 

“Hello, Dr. Farber,” Alfred said in a lowered voice as he leaned over him. “Or … may I call you Lewis? You see, you and I should be on a first-name basis since I am the friend that you have been looking for, for a long time.” 

VVVVVVVV 

Notes: 

An Internet search found this information on epileptic seizures at 

[ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epilepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20350093 ](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epilepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20350093)

Of course, as I often do, I kind of stretched the truth a bit on the seizures in order to make the description fit the storyline. Hope you don’t mind. 

And what does Alfred have in mind for Adam? Has he contrived a way to get a hold of that infamous pugio in order to get the older Immortal’s supernatural longevity transferred to himself? Alas, I believe he’ll find that Adam’s ability to constantly cheat death was bestowed upon him by the same higher power that bestowed Henry’s upon him. Tsk, tsk. Looks like Alfred may be looking at another blubbery crying fit down the road.

Thank you all for following this “timely” tale with me. 


End file.
